“As your business grows beyond a 10-person team, it becomes harder to ask everyone what they got up to over the weekend,” he says. “It also becomes logistically harder to socialise – to agree to have the same cuisine for lunch or go on trips away together.

“This is when the group starts to split into subgroups. The management team versus the non-management team.”

This may result in staff members feeling as if they aren’t getting enough appreciation, a high enough salary or job satisfaction.

“When this happens, the company’s culture starts to go into a downward spiral,” Ng says. “Management blames the non-management team members for not being engaged enough to care about the business, and company results start to decline.”

When Ng noticed this was what was about to happen at his company, he took immediate steps to redefine the company’s core values.

“The definition of hard-working to one person could be completely different to someone else,” he says. “When you have a culture where everyone is aligned, people are happier and more engaged.”

Ng says that in this environment, people focus on working together as a team instead of working against each other, and productivity goes up. “Money no longer becomes the primary driver of going to work, but going to a place where they can do something meaningful with the people they enjoy working with,” he says.

The company is encouraging CEOs to connect with their workers: “On the 12-12-12, we invite all businesses to rally their team and go out to give some high fives and spread happiness,” Ng said on that auspicious date.